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WASHINGTON - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Sunday slammed the presidential election in Iran as failing to be a legitimate exercise in democracy.

Rice criticized the election, saying it "took place with an unelected few having decided who could run, with thousands of people having been disqualified, with women having been disqualified altogether."

"I find it hard to see how this election could certainly contribute to the sense of legitimacy of the Iranian government," she told ABC television Sunday.

Tehran's ultra-conservative mayor Mahmood Ahmadinejad and moderate cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani were the top two finishers in the first round of voting and will face off in a run-off on Friday.

Vaghti ke aghaa Mo'in be Ghoraan khaani mioftand,
is when the warning bell has sounded

Aaghaa Mo'in goo-ee dozaarishoon taazeh oftaadeh:) As if until now and when he was put back in the pool of candidates by the order of his 14th Imam and after he was disqualified, such Organized Interference did not exist. One must ask aaghaa Mo'in, if it ever occurred to him why over 1000 candidates and 100% of female candidates were disqualified without any explanations?

Aaghaa Mo'in, you didn't think of Koran when the 89 women were disqualified so why should anyone help you. Wake up and smell the coffee!

Now that they also kicked his ..., he suddenly remembered the forgotten Verses of Koran! One must also ask him: Is it possible that ye dislike a thing which is good for ye? Now that he prescribes fighting, let's see if he remembers to join Simin Behbehani at Evin Prison for all those who had heard warning sound of the bell years ago. The sound that Shirin Ebadi hasn't heard. The Muslim women, not the Iranian women!, who won the Noble Peace Prize and then became World Bank PR:) The Muslim woman who used Koorosh to soar above the clouds but forgot Koorosh's grandchildren in Evin prison and spoke of Abu Gharib and Guantanamo Bay's prisoners. The Muslim woman who enjoys riding limousine and receiving honorary degrees around the world and planting peace trees while our beloved political prisoners in Iran were on hunger strike or in solitary confinement and she forgot to say a word about them.

The so-called reformers, like Shirin Ebadi, president Khaatami and many of their friends at AIC, NIAC appear not to have heard the warning sound of the bell yet. Although some of them have also been badly disqualified, yet they continue to push nonstop for the world and U.S. normalization of relation with the Organized mafia of Iran.

There is no chance for reform in Iran so long as the murderer mullahs with their EU backers are in power. The regime must change and no sham referendum (tarfandum) while the mullahs are in power and no place for individuals like Sazegara who calls for referendum but then he calls for Jomhuriyeh 4th. Although I'm a Republican but he really is hillarious. I assume in his dictionary 4th is synonym to Islamic:)

Now the election results have been announced. Despite the warnings that were given by the honourable president and the honourable Interior Ministry, as well as by political parties and groups, a particular, organized inclination targeted the soundness of these elections. In the final days before the elections, suddenly, a powerful will entered the arena bent on the victory of a particular candidate and the elimination of the other candidates and opened the way to the organization of some military bodies and the support of the election supervisory apparatus, so that the self-evident rights of the other candidates could be targeted. Today, anyone can clearly see the effect of this organized interference on the election results.

I declare that what happened was an extra-legal move to deprive one candidate of his right and to pull up another candidate.

I declare that with this move, the warning bell has sounded for our fledgling democracy.

Let us be vigilant, for these kinds of complicated, creeping efforts will ultimately lead to militarism, authoritarianism and narrow-mindedness in this country. This trend is a threat to civil society and an impediment to the path of reform. READ MORE

Honourable people of Iran!

We must take seriously the danger of fascism and the disappearance of the role of the people and the danger of the elimination of republicanism under any name or organization. I warn that moves of this kind have henceforth brought into question not just the structure of free and fair elections but also their soundness. We must believe that this structural deviation is far more harmful than the danger of offences, cheating and problems in elections.

I warn that this organized military and supervisory interference in the elections has consequences beyond the violation of the rights of people who voted for me and the likes of me. I declare that this is a threat to the people's choice and free elections, and, even more, a threat to Iran's national interests and to the elevation of the system of the Islamic Republic.

Those who, instead of relying on the democratic power of the people in these elections, relied on the organization of a paramilitary [body] and the use of a partisan and extensive supervisory network and who provided a pretext to the true enemies of democracy in Iran and the world, are the ones who are answerable for this.

Throughout this period, thanks be to God, I have benefited from an explosion of human sentiments throughout the country. From now on, too, I shall rely on these two [God and the nation] and will speak to you, the people, again.

"[Fighting is prescribed for you and ye dislike it.] But it is possible that ye dislike a thing which is good for you. And that ye love a thing which is bad for you. But God knoweth and ye know not." (Baqarah, 216 [Verse from the Koran])

This just the beginning of the challenges to the legitimacy of the elections. In the next few days we can expect a chorus of similar statements, both inside and outside of Iran. Next Friday when the runoff election is being held we need to see the international journalist having the freedom to travel and report from whereever they choose inorder to get a true and clear picture of the election and its turnout.

Iran's presidential election shows the country is out of step with democratic reforms in the Middle East, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday in the Bush administration's first public reaction to the balloting.

"I just don't see the Iranian elections as being a serious attempt to move Iran closer to a democratic future,"she said in an interview on ABC's "This Week."

President Bush denounced the election a day before Friday's vote, saying it was designed to maintain power in the hands of an unelected few who denied ballot access to more than 1,000 people who wanted to run. Rice repeated that criticism Sunday, noting that all the women who wanted to be candidates were not allowed on the ballot.

"Any election in which thousands of people are disqualified by fiat and in which women are disqualified as a class barely deserves to be given that title, particularly in a place that several years ago seemed to be moving in a different direction," Rice said on "Fox News Sunday."

The race drew an unexpectedly strong turnout of nearly 63 percent and resulted in Iran's closest election since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Bush's comments were widely seen in Iran as a boost to hard-liner turnout, with two ultraconservative candidates winning the most votes and facing a run-off election this coming Friday.

Rice appeared on the Sunday talk shows from Jerusalem, where she was meeting with Israeli and Palestinian leaders. She said both sides have told her they are concerned about Iran's support for terrorists who are spreading violence across the region.

She said Iranians have consistently demonstrated their interest in greater democracy. She said other recent elections in the Middle East — in Lebanon, Iraq and the Palestinian territories_ have not closed the ballot the way that Iran did.

"I find it hard to see how this election could certainly contribute to the sense of legitimacy of the Iranian government, and it certainly is out of step with the way that elections are being held in the region," she said on ABC